Alcohol Inks Tutorial Color Chart and Lightfast Examination

Adirondack Alcohol Inks by Tim Holtz / Ranger Ink come in over 54 colors (they keep adding new colors, including pearl shimmer ones!) including "lights", "brights", and "earth tones" shown individually here on glossy paper. They appear more vibrant on non-porous surfaces (such as a domino) and slightly muted on porous surfaces (such every bit paper.)

 The following video tutorial may help you go a clear idea on how these inks work. Here I'll how to apply alcohol inks to plastic surfaces, such as acrylic charms and domino game tiles. I love the new Lift Ink stamp pad by Tim Holtz, it's a great style to carefully erase designs within your inked surfaces.

The color combination charts below show how each fix works together. For case, the " Countryside " set includes Crush Pink, Willow, Cloudy Blue. When used together they look similar this:

The Basics. Here is the standard, nigh popular awarding:

Employ multiple colour combinations to
compliment your rubber stamped
artwork. (I used Stampbord as my
surface, and the image is from Spri-106 )

How to use the applicator, felt and booze inks: Add a few drops of each color you lot desire to apply to the felt pad that is attached to your applicator. I apply single drops of color a lilliputian randomly on diverse areas of the felt (come across photo.)

Lightly dab your surface repeatedly until you achieve the coverage and pattern desired. If you apply it by patting the surface only a couple times you will get a blended, less marble looking / blotchy upshot equally you do if y'all keep patting your surface repeatedly. You lot can make it very interesting by blowing on it as yous work in quick taps for the smallest marble pattern effects.

Try out combinations of two inks, or even just one and the "alcohol blending solution" (works as clear booze ink) for a diversity of marbled monotone effects.

Note: Felt by nature has a lot of loose fibers that frequently fall out. I have not establish a style to avoid this, but you can rub off a lot of the fiddling fibers once the ink dries in a few seconds.

Employ a blending solution (bachelor here) to add together marbled effects:

Creating custom colors and filling markers with alcohol inks:

Alcohol inks piece of work wonderfully inside empty markers, such equally Ranger Ink or Copic make markers. Merely add drops of ink onto the broad tip until it bleeds through to the bottom tip. This takes about 150 drops (it's not much, somewhere about 1/tenth of a bottle of Adirondack inks.) These colors alloy beautifully together on paper projects.

Allows yous to plow your favorite inks into markers, or mix your own custom colors. Since you tin can add ink any time the marker starts to run dry, these markers tin can literally last forever. No more waste of disposable markers, or disappointment when you notice a marker has run dry.

When mixing custom colors apply an empty dropper bottle to mix the colors first earlier inserting the mix into your marker. Craft stores usually have empty bottles with dropper tops for essential oils in the soap making supplies surface area.

If y'all are using empty Copic Sketch markers than you tin besides use these inks with their airbrushing organization for painting.

When you are using dark colored alcohol inks on a domino you lot will have a hard time getting a rubber stamped epitome to bear witness up well. You can assist bring out the details of your stamped art past lightening sure areas of your epitome. Y'all can do this by erasing the alcohol ink with a lighter color of alcohol ink. Booze inks or blending solution in mark form is great for this. Sharpies too work, all the same the tips on those markers practice not let for shine precision.

Altered jewelry! Add color to metal and other non porous surfaces:

I bought a silvertone metal band a while dorsum and I always wished it was colorful. So I picked out some alcohol ink colors (raspberry, stream and dusk orangish) and placed a drop of each color onto a non-porous surface (I used the outside of a ziplock bag.) I then picked up the colors and applied them using an empty aqua brush filled with alcohol or blending solution. I sealed it with Krylon clear gloss sealer spray.

Using booze inks to color manifestly beads for jewelry making (White acrylic chaplet, metal tags, blank guitar picks and game tiles
to decorate can exist found on the beads folio hither):

Booze inks, glitter glue, versamark and Perfect Pearls mica powders can be establish on the Art Supplies folio. Chaplet and acrylic shapes on the blank beads page here.

You volition always become the all-time results with transparent inks on LIGHT COLORED SURFACES (particularly white tile), but for those of you tempted to try them on mirrors and metal I tested out stainless steel pendants and charms (located at the bottom of the chaplet page.)

Troubleshooting: I used a mirror stop, not the wearisome dark metal of screws/washers/hardware equipment which I found alcohol inks difficult to work on.

I practise not employ a felt pad to apply alcohol inks on surfaces that are not white/very lite colored, as this further dilutes the ink.

Apply the darkest and most vibrant alcohol ink colors directly dripped from the canteen. For the outcome to the left, use canned air to accident the hulk of ink effectually immediately after yous baste it onto the metal or mirror surface.

Idea Gallery:

Failed experiments and happy accidents . (I make mistakes then you don't take to!) Sometimes I try and fail. Sometimes I thought I failed and in the clean upwards efforts detect something interesting! Hither is where I will share these "mistakes" with you!

Warning - FAILED EXPERIMENT!

Somewhen I just started applying the alcohol ink directly to my gold acrylic paint. I used an aqua brush filled with alcohol or clear blending solution, and picked upwards alcohol ink color onto the brush tip. If you do not have a not-stick mat or paint palette to put your drops of colored booze ink, yous tin always use a piece of paper covered with record.

This looked so pretty at first and I was very pleased with the effect of alcohol ink over the metallic acrylic paint. BUT It FADES OVER Time! The alcohol ink colors were absorbed into the slightly porous surface of the paint. This happened very chop-chop, within days, and completely faded the colors you see here on the roses and leaves.

Trouble SOLVING:This technique could still work IF y'all completely sealed the paint surface before applying alcohol inks. The clear acrylic spray by Krylon should provide a non-porous surface for the alcohol inks. I'll accept to echo the examination in the future to be certain if that is a complete gear up.

Lightfast Test - Alcohol Inks (Adirondack Tim Holtz brand) manufactured by Ranger Ink

There is no alter in colors when kept in normal indoor conditions, no direct sunlight or exposure to humidity. They are not lightfast in the sun for any prolonged catamenia of fourth dimension. Many of these colors would interruption down within a couple weeks of constant direct sunlight (outside OR within by a window where the sun beams come through straight on them) because they are dyes and not artist's pigments puts them at a disadvantage. (This is not a sign of a poor quality product, simply rather a side effect of this blazon of production. Dye based inks are very vibrant, fluid, and are capable of producing effects that lightfast pigments tin can non.)

UV sealers and barriers could assist prolong the colour life for very brief temporary outdoor situations. Particularly helpful with jewelry making, you could utilize a sealer such every bit Krylon's clear UV resistant gloss spray. That helps protect your surface and makes these inks less decumbent to fading if you need them to exist exposed to sunlight short term. Be aware that UV sealers that are thin, like sprays and castor on sealers, only provide minimal protection since they are not thick enough to misconstrue UV rays similar resin would be. In my tests UV sprays sometimes only add a few more days (about a calendar week in indirect light) worth of lord's day protection.

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